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20 Demand Generation Terms for Marketers

Have you ever been in a meeting and heard someone spit out a jumble of letters you’ve never heard before?

Of course you just nod along and fake your understanding until you can pop onto Google at your earliest convenience to figure it out. It’s daunting to hear these unknown acronyms and not have any clue what they actually mean. So we've got good news: we’ve collected a bunch of acronyms so you don't have to feel like C-3PO.

Get on the right level with these demand generation terms

A/B Testing“Split Testing” compares two versions (version A and version B) of something to see which one performs better. For example, you can see which subject line performs better by sending the same email with two separate subject lines. Some email sending software chooses the winner for you after a given time period and promotes that winner for the duration of the send, while some allows you to make the decision after sending to a defined number (usually half of your list) and getting your results. The one that gets more opens, replies, etc. (whatever your goal is) wins.

CAC:Customer Acquisition CostRefers to how expensive it will be to sign a new client. A clear understanding of necessary spend for acquisition is critical to forecasting marketing spend and overall company growth. It is also a metric that investors will want to know if and when you approach them for funding.

CLTV:Customer Lifetime ValueRefers to the value of your customer for their entire lifetime with your business. These metrics enable you to determine how profitable those customers will be for the business overall, instead of just upfront, so you can make greater decisions about what capital you're willing to or need to invest in acquisition.

CMS: Content Management SystemThis one's fairly self-explanatory. A CMS is a software application and/or a set of all related programs you will use to manage digital content.

COS: Content Optimization SystemA platform that organizes your different marketing tools in a dashboard that makes it simple to plan and execute marketing campaigns. HubSpot is one of the more well-known COS platforms for Inbound marketing.

CRM: Customer Relationship ManagementA term that refers to the strategies and technologies companies use to manage customer relationships and data. You can also use the term CRM to refer to software that helps you achieve the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth.

CRO: Conversion Rate OptimizationThe process of improving your site conversion rate using design techniques, key optimization principles and testing. It involves creating an experience for your website visitors that will convert them into customers. CRO is most often applied to web page or landing page optimization, but it can also be applied to social media, CTAs, emails and other parts of your marketing.

CPA: Cost Per Acquisition or Cost Per ActionA measurement of the per conversion cost from start to finish, including everything from search engine results to landing pages.

DNS: Domain Name ServerA server that translates a web address into one or more IP addresses.

L2RM: Lead to Revenue ManagementA customer engagement model that integrates metrics, processes and goals to acquire new customers, up sell current customers, and grow overall revenue.

LTV:CAC: Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition CostThis metric is often held up as one of the most important measurements for SaaS companies because it gives you high-level insight into what's required to gain a customer. It also tells you what you can expect as a return over the lifetime of your engagement with that customer, so you can really determine if the acquisition cost makes sense.

MAP: Marketing Automation PlatformA reference to the software marketers use to automate communications, including email sends, lead scoring and lead distribution/routing.

PPC: Pay-per-ClickCan also be price per click, or the amount of money spent to get a single click on an ad. Most commonly, PPC refers to the internet advertising model itself, wherein advertisers pay a publisher (usually a search engine, social media site or website owner) a certain amount of money every time their ad is clicked. For search engines, PPC ads display an advertisement when someone searches for a keyword that matches the advertiser's keyword list (which the advertiser submits to the search engine ahead of time). PPC ads are used to direct traffic to the advertiser's website, and PPC as a metric is used to assess the cost effectiveness and profitability of your paid advertising campaigns.

SaaS: Software as a ServiceServices offered via software that you can access either online or via a downloaded version. Usually used to refer to the industry or business of these services. For example, HubSpot is a SaaS company.

SLA: Service Level AgreementFor marketers, an SLA is an agreement between a company's sales and marketing teams that defines the expectations Sales has for Marketing and vice versa. The Marketing SLA defines expectations Sales has for Marketing with regard to delivering leads and the quantity and quality expectations around those leads. The Sales SLA defines the expectations Marketing has for Sales on how deeply and frequently Sales will pursue each qualified lead, so Marketing knows their efforts are being matched.

SMB: Small to Medium-sized BusinessA business with 100 or fewer employees is generally considered small, while one with 100-999 employees is considered medium-sized. "SMB" is usually used in contrast to "Enterprise."

SMM: Social Media MarketingInternet marketing that uses social networking websites as its tools. The goal of SMM is to increase awareness and exposure through distribution of highly shareable and engaging — ideally "viral" — content.

UX: User ExperienceRefers to the experience someone has when using a particular product or service, in many cases, a website. User experience highlights the emotional aspects of using or owning a product — i.e. can describe the way the user feels.

If you know anymore acronyms out there that we missed, comment below and we’ll be sure to add them to our list!